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Christianity has a long history in Anatolia (Asia Minor) and Armenian Highlands (now part of Turkey), which is the birthplace of numerous Christian Apostles and Saints, such as Paul of Tarsus, Timothy, Nicholas of Myra, Polycarp of Smyrna and many others.
Contents
- Brief description
- Demographics
- Christian communities
- Churches of the Byzantine rite
- Churches of the Armenian rite
- Churches of the Syriac rite
- Churches of the Assyrian Rite
- Churches of the Latin rite
- Anglican Church
- Lutheran Church
- Other denominations
- References
The percentage of Christians in Turkey fell from 19 percent in 1914 to 2.5 percent in 1927, due to events which had a significant impact on the country's demographic structure, such as the Armenian Genocide, the population exchange between Greece and Turkey, and the emigration of Christians (such as Levantines, Greeks, Armenians etc.) to foreign countries (mostly in Europe and the Americas) that actually began in the late 19th century and gained pace in the first quarter of the 20th century, especially during World War I and after the Turkish War of Independence. Today there are more than 160,000 people of different Christian denominations, representing less than 0.2 percent of Turkey's population, including an estimated 80,000 Oriental Orthodox, 35,000 Roman Catholics, 18,000 Antiochian Greeks, 5,000 Greek Orthodox and smaller numbers of Protestants (Mostly ethnic Turkish) There is also a small group of ethnic Orthodox-Christian Turks (mostly living in Istanbul or Izmir) who follow the Greek Orthodox or Syrian Orthodox church. They are often confused with ethnic Greeks. Some of them actually have a Greek background, but there are ethnic Turks, who never converted to Islam in the history between this population. Currently there are 236 churches open for worship in Turkey. The Eastern Orthodox Church has been headquartered in Istanbul since the 4th century.
Brief description
Two out of the five centers (Patriarchates) of the ancient Pentarchy are in Turkey: Constantinople (Istanbul) and Antioch (Antakya). Antioch was also the place where the followers of Jesus were called "Christians" for the first time in history, as well as being the site of one of the earliest and oldest surviving churches, established by Saint Peter himself. For a thousand years, the Hagia Sophia was the largest church in the world.
Turkey is also home to the Seven Churches of Asia, where the Revelation to John was sent. Apostle John is reputed to have taken Virgin Mary to Ephesus in western Turkey, where she spent the last days of her life in a small house, known as the House of the Virgin Mary, which still survives today and has been recognized as a holy site for pilgrimage by the Catholic and Orthodox churches, as well as being a Muslim shrine. The cave of the Seven Sleepers is also located in Ephesus.
All of the first seven Ecumenical Councils which are recognized by both the Western and Eastern churches were held in present-day Turkey. Of these, the Nicene Creed, declared with the First Council of Nicaea (İznik) in 325, is of utmost importance and has provided the essential definitions of present-day Christianity.
Today, however, Turkey has a smaller Christian percentage of its population than any of its neighbours, including Syria, Iraq and even Iran, due to the Assyrian Genocide, Armenian Genocide and Greek Genocide during and after World War I, and the subsequent large scale population transfers of Turkey's Christian population, most notably Greece, and the forced exodus of indigenous Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks and Georgians upon the breakup of the Ottoman Empire. This was followed by the continued emigration of most of the remaining indigenous Christians over the next century.
During the tumultuous period of the first world war and founding of the Turkish republic, up to 3 million indigenous Christians are alleged to have been killed. Prior to this time, the Christian population stood at around 20% of the total.
In the 19th century in Turkey there were nationalistic campaigns against Assyrians which often had the assistance of Kurdish paramilitary support. In 1915, Turks and Kurds massacred tens of thousands Assyrians in Siirt. Assyrians were attacked in the Hakkari mountains by the Turkish army with the help of Kurdish tribes, and many Christians were deported and about a quarter million Assyrians were murdered or died due to persecution. This number doubles if the killings during the 1890s are included. Kurds saw the Assyrians as dangerous foreigners and enforcers of the British colonizers, which made it justifiable to them to commit ethnic cleansing. The Kurds fought the Assyrians also due to fears that the Armenians, or European colonial powers backing them, would assume control in Anatolia. Kurdish milita plundered Armenian and other Christian villages.
According to professor Martin van Bruinessen, relations between Christians and Kurdish and other Muslim peoples were often bitter and during World War I "Christians of Tur Abdin (in Turkey) for instance have been subjected to brutal treatment by Kurdish tribes, who took their land and even their daughters".
Kurdish-dominated Hamidiye units slaughtered Christian Armenians in Tur Abdin region in 1915. It is estimated that ten thousand Assyrians were killed, and reportedly "the skulls of small children were smashed with rocks, the bodies of girls and women who resisted rape were chopped into pieces live, men were mostly beheaded, and the clergy skinned or burnt alive...." In 1915, Turks and Kurds plundered the Assyrian village of Mar-Zaya in Jelu and slaughtered the population, it is estimated that 7,000 Assyrians wer slaughtered during this period. In September 1914 more than 30 Armenian and Assyrian villages were burnt by Kurdish and Turkish mobs in the Urmia region. After the Russian army retreated, Turkish troops with Kurdish detachments organized mass slaughters of Assyrians, in the Assyirian village of Haftvan 750 men were beheaded and 5000 assyrian women were taken to kurdish harems. Turks and Kurds also slaughtered Christians in Diarbekir. There was a policy during the Hamidian era to use Kurdish tribes as irregulars (Hamidiye units) against the Armenians.
Demographics
The vast majority of Christians in Turkey are members of local ethnic groups indigenous to Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) that did not succumb to the cultural Turkification and religious Islamization of the remaining majority of the pre-Turkified pre-Islamized Anatolian population which had been living in the region since the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age.
The Anatolian population which became Turkified and Islamized have had poor relations with these ancient communities which have remained Christian non-Turks, be they Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians and Georgians, and the previous killings, deportations and emigrations of these ethnicities which remained Christian, coupled with the emigration of the country's Jews and its non-recognition of other religions, means that Turkey is a de facto Islamic state, and self-identified Turks are almost exclusively Muslim.
The newspaper Milliyet reported that 35,000 Muslim Turks converted to Christianity in 2008. There is small ethnic Turkish Protestant Christian community in Turkey which number about 4,000-5,000 adherents most of them came from Muslim Turkish background. If these conversion figures are accurate and if such trends continue, it would indicate a shift of the Christian population in Turkey from being mostly members of ethnic minorities to being mostly ethnic Turks.
Today the Christian population of Turkey is estimated at more than 160,000 Christians, these include; 60,000 Armenian Apostolic, 35,000 Roman Catholics of varying ethnicities, 21,000 ethnic Assyrians, (mostly followers of the Assyrian Church of the East, Syriac Orthodox Church and Chaldean Catholic Church), up to 22,000 Greeks (3,000-4,000 Greek Orthodox, 10,000-18,000 Antiochian Greeks) and smaller numbers of Bulgarians, Georgians, and Protestants of various ethnicities.
According to Bekir Bozdağ, Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey, there were 349 active churches in Turkey (October 2012). 140 Greek, 58 Assyrian and 52 Armenian.
Christian communities
Churches of the Byzantine rite
Istanbul is the seat of the patriarchate, one of the oldest of the Eastern Orthodox Churches.
Antioch is the official seat of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East. Hatay Province including Antakya is not part of the canonic area of the Church of Constantinople. Most of the local orthodox persons are Arabic-speaking.
Churches of the Armenian rite
Armenians in Turkey prior to the Armenian Genocide were centered in the eastern part of Turkey, known as the Armenian Highlands, or Western Armenia. Now, the majority are concentrated in Istanbul. A couple thousand others live scattered throughout Anatolian Turkey.
There are 35 churches maintained by the religious foundation in Istanbul and its surrounding areas. Besides Surp Asdvadzadzin Patriarchal Church (translation: the Holy Mother-of-God Armenian Patriarchal Church) in Kumkapi, Istanbul, there are tens of Armenian Apostolic churches. There are other churches in Kayseri, Diyarbakır, Derik, İskenderun, and Vakifli Koyu that are claimed by foundations as well. Around 1,000 Armenian churches throughout Turkey sit on public or privately owned land as well, with them all either being re-purposed or abandoned and/or in ruins.
Churches of the Syriac rite
The Syriac Christian population probably has the most regional influence in Turkey, as its population wasn't confined to or was centered in Istanbul like the rest of the Christian communities of Turkey were. Active churches are located in Istanbul, Diyarbakir, Adiyaman, and Elazig. There are many both active and inactive churches in the traditionally Neo-Aramaic area of Tur Abdin, which is a region centered in the western area of(Mardin province, and has areas that go into Sirnak, and Batman Province. Up until the 1980s the Syriac population was concentrated there as well, but a large amount of the population has fled the region to Istanbul or abroad due to the Kurdish-Turkish conflict (1978-present). The Church structure is still organized however, with 12 reverends stationed in churches and monasteries there. Churches were also in several other provinces as well, but in the Assyrian Genocide the churches in those provinces were destroyed or left ruined.
Churches of the Syriac rite include-
Churches of the Assyrian Rite
The Nestorian (Assyrian Church of the East) church in Turkey was completely wiped out in the Assyrian Genocide, although they were originally centered in Hakkari. The Chaldean Branch is based primarily in Istanbul, although its church structure is centered in Diyarbakir.
Churches of the Assyrian rite include-
Churches of the Latin rite
Anglican Church
The Anglicans in Turkey form part of the Eastern Archdeaconry of the Diocese of Gibraltar in Europe. In 2008 the Bishop of Europe, Geoffrey Rowell, caused controversy by ordaining a local man to minister to Turkish-speaking Anglicans in Istanbul.
The main churches are at Ankara (St Nicholas), Istanbul (Christ Church) and Izmir (St John the Evangelist).
Lutheran Church
The Lutheranism has been in Turkey since 1709. The Istanbul Lutheran Church is founded 2004.
Other denominations
The Armenian Protestants own three Istanbul churches from the 19th century. There is an Alliance of Protestant Churches in Turkey.
There are churches for foreigners in compounds and resorts, although they are not counted in lists of churches as they are only used by Tourists and Expats.